Builds V8 (SBC) to V8 (Gen III Vortec) swap in my FJ60... (1 Viewer)

[orion]

My plan: Drive it, watch the (clear) fuel pump pre-filter, and change out the high pressure filter in a few hundred miles, see what's inside.

If the pre-filter is clean, but there's a bunch of debris in the main filter...it has to be the fuel hard lines.

So, for several reasons (laziness + curiosity), I've done exactly that ^^^...just to see if I could determine the cause of this debris in my fuel system.

At the end of Sept, I drove it to a 2-Gun competition an hour away. On the way home, it was again missing the low end torque...and idling a little off. I was hoping there was just residual crap in the fuel rails from GSMTR, so I pulled the injectors and cleaned them out one more time. Here's how they looked:

And the gas I drained from the rails:

Really fine particles in there.

I was pretty convinced the fuel lines had to be the culprit (as the pre filter looks clean), but I figure no harm in running it a while longer...then cutting the main (high pressure) fuel filter open, see what i was dealing with there.

After cleaning the injectors, it was again running great, and making great power.

Then a month passed, and I decided to head up to Alabama to visit with my brothers and the HOT South Cruiser guys for their campout last weekend.

...and while wheeling, it was pinging under load and stumbling off idle.

Got home, pulled the main fuel filter and cut it open (last night). Lots of crap in there, as expected -->

And the fuel filter housing:

...

So, I've ordered some 5/16" stainless tubing to replace the factory hard lines. I'll just work my way back to the tank, replacing whatever needs replacing...until I find the cause.

Hopefully tonight I can take off and cut open one of the factory lines, see if I can determine if that's 100% the root cause (lines rusting from the inside out).

Stay Tuned!

- Brian

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

Usually it’s the tank. Not the lines. I would start there.

 

[orion]

Usually it’s the tank. Not the lines. I would start there.

I appreciate the input, but I already checked the tank (there's a pic a page back)...it looks OK. Was apparently coated at some point in the past.

...

Dug into the fuels line last night. Disconnected, drained, and cut off a 8" section of the fuel feed line.

Here's what I found:

Didn't look too bad as I started to cut it open (lengthwise), but then I turned it on end and tapped the side (holding it over a paper towel)...and all that crap fell out.

So that certainly points to the fuel lines being "the issue".

The only puzzling part is that these decently sized particles are getting past the fuel filter and into the injectors. So either the fuel filter sucks at filtering, or the hard lines (steel crossover lines) on the Vortec motor are also breaking down / rusting internally.

At least I know for sure that redoing the factory hard fuel lines won't be a waste of time...then I'll go from there.

Thanks for following along...

- Brian

 

[MANUCHAO]

I have always regretted not using OE fuel lines (hard lines have a cleaner look) on my swap.... but not any more....
Thanks for posting this and glad to see (hopefully) you guys caught it, before any serious damage was done...

 

[Elbert]

I like the "clean" look of the OEM hard line, but I went with braided hose...one filter between the fuel pump and tank and another filter between the pump and the engine. I use a GM fuel filter like came on many GM pickups with 5.7 and various other GM engines with fuel injection, as I recall the filter between the tank and the pump is a Russell brand (or similiar) on of those small all in one filters. My fuel pump is external. Hard line is nice but in the case of the old truck I would want "new" hard line.

 

[orion]

Had some time this weekend to work on the truck, made some new fuel hard lines.

Started by pulling the OEM hard lines -->

Then bent up that coil of 5/16" SS line to match the shape of the old lines. They lined up pretty good -->

I routed them a little differently into the engine bay. Instead of coming up and out the pass. side, then using rubber lines to run over to the drivers side of the engine bay...I routed them up and over the bellhousing (I have extra room behind the motor due to the Ranger Torque Splitter).

Decided to use stainless hard line for the return line out the back of the fuel rail (there's a 6" rubber section that connects it to the line to the frame rail, for flex) -->

(still need to make a bracket to hold the new fuel filter)

Hopefully I can pull the fuel rails and clean out the injectors tonight. I should be back driving it this week, if all goes well.

- Brian

 

[orion]

Pulled the rails, cleaned out the injectors last night.

Here's why it was running lean / pinging under load:

Lots of really fine debris in the rail / clogging the injector inlets.

Luckily, the screens (filters) in each injector stop this stuff, so it's easy to blast out with carb cleaner...get them clean and clear again.

Just need to reassemble now.

- Brian

 

[MANUCHAO]

I had my injectors serviced by a local import shop...
Although mine looked...clean (nothing like what your pic shows), i was surprised when the service dude set them up to check for blockage and leakage.....
These had easy 100k+ in them...

 

[orion]

I had my injectors serviced by a local import shop...

Good call - I plan to have mine professionally cleaned, once I have sorted this mess out for good...

There's a local boat place that does them, it's not too much $$$.

- Brian

 

[cheeze]

Perusing FB and came across this ad. Thought it looked awfully familiar. This your pic?

 

[orion]

Good looking out...but no, not my 60.

(mine doesn't have a black roof)

- Brian

 

[Hamachi]

Perusing FB and came across this ad. Thought it looked awfully familiar. This your pic?

Not mine

 

[onemanarmy]

Perusing FB and came across this ad. Thought it looked awfully familiar. This your pic?

Ha. not even close.

 

[onemanarmy]

@orion
with that aftermarket tach, did you just wire it to the GM computer? No converter or other issues?

 

[orion]

with that aftermarket tach, did you just wire it to the GM computer? No converter or other issues?

Yep. Vortec (LS) tach signal output is like a 4cyl...so I set the tach to 4 cylinder mode, connected it directly to the PCM, and it works perfectly.

To be more specific: I connected the PCM tach output wire to the factory tach signal wire under the hood, then used the factory connections in the gauge cluster to hook up the aftermarket tach.

FWIW, I run a "Scangauge II" to monitor the temp, etc...and the tach is dead on.

- Brian

 

[mongoose2231]

What exactly is that debris? Rubber, sand, wth is it?

 

[orion]

Don't really know...

I think it's really fine rust. It's not magnetic (well, doesn't stick to my little magnetic grabber), and doesn't appear to be sand / dirt.

My current theory is that what I'm picking up in the filters now is leftover from the first big blow-out at GSMTR last year (main filter blew out internally, and all this fine crap went into my whole fuel system).

Each time I check or replace the pre-filter (the clear plastic one), there's less caught in it.

After I put a few more miles on it, I'll replace both filters (again) and then just keep a close eye on it. Right now, it's only being driven 1x per week, as I'm spending my time wrenching on the Red 1981 I bought (which is basically parked behind this truck!).

- Brian

 

[mongoose2231]

That is some amount of crud dude!

 

[orion]

OK - Nearly a year later...I'm back at it!

As I mentioned above, the red SOA 60 that I was messing with blocked my white 60 in for most of the last year, so it didn't get the love and attention it deserved. Now that the red truck is someone else's problem project (hehe), I'm driving this truck more...and trying to perfect a few things I wasn't 100% happy with.

First off, the brakes. They have been "off", as in "weird pedal feel" for a few years (since I had something happen while wheeling around New Years Day, maybe 2018?) I've replaced the master cylinder (twice actually, and I bench bled it properly each time), replaced (upgraded?) the front calipers with 4Runner calipers, then better pads. Then a T100 master cylinder.

While it was 80% "fixed", it still felt like I didn't have full braking power. I suspected the 'proportioning valve' under the master cylinder, but without a good reason.

Before messing with that, I decided to upgrade the booster to a dual-diaphram unit (also off a 4Runner, IIRC). That definitely helped the feel (the T100 master cylinder needed more 'boost' to reach the same pressure as the stock m/c). But, I didn't get the adjustment dead-on, so it required too much pedal travel and was "touchy". Again, bad braking feel...in a different way. Felt like I was going in circles.

SO...I pulled the master cylinder again to adjust the rod on the booster...but my curiosity got the better of me with the "proportioning valve". I decided to crack it open (despite the FSM saying not to), see if there was something fishy going on inside it -->

I was halfway through cleaning it here...just had "gunk" on all the innerds.

It all looked like this:

Put it back together, went for a test drive...and while it was better (felt like a little more rear bias), it still took too much pedal travel. Here's when the lightbulb went off, and I realized I probably got the measurements wrong and just needed to adjust the booster rod).

Did that, and braking is pretty good now. As good as you can expect on an old truck with big heavy E-rated tires!

So that was last week...

(cont'd below)

 

[orion]

In doing all that, I noticed a hole in the firewall I forgot to attend to when I redid the gas pedal (cut off the unused linkage, since I'm running a cable for the Vortec motor -->

(pic is sideways for some reason?)

So I cut out a little aluminum sheet, lined it with Killmat on both sides, and plugged the hole -->

Hopefully there's less noise and fumes coming in now. Who knows.

...

Next up is the fuel injectors, AGAIN. Tank clearly has rust in it, even though it looks OK through the fuel sender access hole...so it will get dropped, and I'll figure out what to do based on how bad it looks, I guess.

Anyway, that's where I'm at.

Really looking forward to getting back to wheeling this truck!

- Brian